City could come unstuck in Kiev

The Ukrainian league doesn’t return for another week but Dynamo Kiev have been playing friendlies every few days over the past several weeks so they should be in relatively good shape heading into this match. The same can certainly not be said for Man City, who have lost three significant matches in a row and another couple of defeats this week would see them complete a shocking February that started with them challenging for four trophies.

Dynamo were unbeaten at home in the group stage and in the past two years only Shakhtar have managed to come here and win. It’s also been more than eight years since an English side last won here as Chelsea, Everton, Stoke, Man City and Arsenal have all failed to deliver in visits since 2008. They are certainly not a side to underestimate and they kept four clean sheets in their last five group matches while they’ve drawn their last three European home games against sides we have ranked above them.

City showed little interest in the FA Cup at the weekend and they are clearly putting all their emphasis on this match. But in their current form and with the injuries they have it’s questionable how much those extra days off will help. They’ve lost both their previous Champions League knockout games on the road (admittedly both were at Barcelona) and with their confidence taking a battering it’ll be a big ask to win in Kiev. In their past 12 away games across all competitions they’ve won only four times, and those were 1-0 at Sunderland where they were hanging on, 4-0 at Aston Villa in the FA Cup, 3-0 at Norwich and 2-1 at Watford where they trailed with 10 minutes to go. With three draws and five defeats in the other eight matches its not exactly inspiring form.
Furthermore, in eight of these 12 games they failed to score more than once and with De Bruyne and Navas both injured their attacking midfield options are much weaker, particularly with David Silva having been struggling with injuries and seemingly not at 100%.

Under 2.5 Goals is definitely an option in this one at 1.85 but we just prefer Dynamo to inflict some more misery on the struggling Citizens while keeping the draw on our side.